This invention is related in general to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the invention is related to a system and method for wireless directory assistance.
Directory assistance is the service of providing a customer a telephone number for a party specified by the customer. The customer may supply a name and a city location of the party to the directory assistance operator, and the operator then looks up that party""s telephone number in a computer database and provides the telephone number to the customer. Most recently, the operator, upon locating the telephone number, would activate a pre-recorded voice announcement to convey the telephone number to the customer. Some directory service providers further offer to connect the customer to the telephone number for a predetermined fee.
Currently, directory assistance calls made by wireless customers are routed from the wireless switch to a centralized directory assistance service provider. Because the directory assistance service provider may service customers within a large geographical area, the call to the directory assistance service provider is usually a long-distance call, which may be routed through one or more switches. If the customer is then connected to the destination telephone number by the directory assistance service provider, then the call from the customer to the destination number is routed through the wireless switch, one or more switches to the directory assistance service provider, and then one or more switches to the destination number. The last leg of the path from the directory assistance service provider to the destination number may also be routed through one or more switches. Therefore, it may be seen that a single call takes up a disproportionate amount of bandwidth to route the call.
Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient method of providing wireless directory assistance service to the customers.
In one aspect of the invention, a method of providing wireless directory assistance service includes the steps of recognizing a wireless call placed by a caller at a telecommunications carrier switch, routing the wireless call to a call management platform coupled to the telecommunications carrier, and a directory assistance service provider is contacted via the telecommunications carrier switch or via a frame relay network. The wireless call is then split from the call to the directory assistance service provider. The call management platform then receives a destination number from the directory assistance service provider and supplies it to the caller in a voice announcement. The destination number may be received in-band or via the frame relay network. The call management platform waits a predetermined time period and then automatically connects the wireless call to the destination number via the telecommunications carrier switch if the wireless call has not been disconnected within the predetermined time period.